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Shanghai festival unveils line-up

13th edition features jury headed by John Woo

BEIJING -- The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled its competition lineup on Thursday but kept the opening and closing films of the event's 13th edition under wraps.

Running from June 12-20, the festival expects to draw its largest-ever audience, coinciding as it does with the Shanghai Expo, the giant global trade show forecast to draw millions of visitors to China's biggest city.

Competing this year for the golden goblet, or Jin Jue Award, are films such as "Circuit," from Spanish director Xavier Ribera, "Czukor Show," from Hungarian Tamás Dömötör, and "Ocean Heaven" -- Chinese director Xue Xiaolu's film about autism starring Jet Li in his first non-martial arts role.

"The standard of the movies has increased, with record numbers of quality films with rich content displaying diverse styles and excellent workmanship being entered," said Tang Lijun, SIFF director.

In keeping with past years, SIFF programmers appear again to have had trouble attracting major world premiere titles to the event, which falls right on the heels of the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Organizers promised China's A-list movie-world regulars would walk the event's red carpet -- from actresses such as Fan Bingbing and Yu Nan to directors Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang and 2010 Cannes competitor Wang, whose "Chongqing Blues" could open or close the festival, some industry watchers believe.

Competitors for the 2010 Asian New Talent Award include "Red Dragonflies," by Jiekai Liao of Singapore, "Crossing the Mountain," from China's Yang Rui, and "Goodbye Mom," from South Korea's Jeong Gi-hoon.